In a video published Tuesday, Mark Zuckerberg announces a series of radical changes that will apply to content moderation on the Facebook, Instagram and Threads platforms. In essence, if in recent years, the Meta group has taken a series of measures aimed at controlling the content posted on these platforms, from now on, it will take the opposite path in order to restore freedom of expression.
“In recent years, we have developed increasingly complex systems to manage content on our platforms, partly in response to societal and political pressure to moderate content. This approach has gone too far”explains Joel Kaplan, head of global affairs at Meta. According to him, Meta’s moderation system produced too many errors, and opposed freedom of expression. “Too much harmless content is censored, too many people are wrongly locked in “Facebook prison,” and we are often too slow to respond when it happens.”he indicated.
In his video, Mark Zuckerberg also indicates that the recent elections suggest that we are on “a cultural tipping point” towards a renewal of the priority of freedom of expression. Among the changes announced by the Meta group, there is the end of the fact-checking program, less intervention by the social network (except for serious violations), and the movement of moderation teams from California to Texas .
Meta draws inspiration from X’s Community Notes
One of the key measures announced by Meta is the end of its fact-checking program in the United States (for the moment). As a reminder, this program was created to combat misinformation on Facebook and is based on expert opinions. But the problem, according to Meta, is that these experts have their own biases and views. Instead of relying on fact-checkers, the group is therefore taking inspiration from the system called Community Rating used by Elon Musk’s social network X.
“We’ve seen this approach work on for other users”says Joel Kaplan. This new system will begin to appear in the United States in the coming months.
Fewer interventions
Meta also intends to reduce the interventions of its moderation system. This puts an end to certain restrictions affecting subjects, such as immigration and gender. “It is not normal that things can be said on television or in Congress, but not on our platforms”indicates the group. On the other hand, if Meta’s automated systems continue to detect serious violations of its rules, as well as illegal posts, the group will now rely on reporting for “less serious violations” of its policy. The stated objective is to reduce the number of publications that are censored by these automated systems in error.
“We also demote too much content that our systems predict might violate our standards. We are in the process of getting rid of most of these demotions and requiring greater confidence in violating content for others”we also read in the publication. In addition, Meta announces the move of its American moderation team from California to Texas.
More political content
Meta will also backtrack on political content. In recent years, the group has reduced the visibility of this type of content on its platforms. But now Meta will use a more personalized approach, to allow users who want to see more political content to see more.
In his video, Mark Zuckerberg indicates that Meta will work with the Trump administration to resist foreign governments pushing American companies to “censor more.” Concerning the EU, the boss of Meta does not mince his words, accusing it of institutionalizing censorship through its laws, and of making innovation difficult.
Before these measures were announced, Meta replaced its former head of global affairs, Nick Clegg, with Joel Kaplan. The latter is a Republican who was part of George Bush’s staff at the White House. Recently, Meta also named three new members to its board of directors, including Dana White, president and CEO of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). According to the Associated Press, he is a familiar figure in Trump’s orbit.
